PROLIFERATION OF MILITARY VETERAN HELP GROUPS

PROLIFERATION OF MILITARY VETERAN HELP GROUPS

FRAZER CHRONICLE

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

There are several hundred military veteran help groups in the United States today, each soliciting funds so that they can aid returning soldiers from the different war zones that the United States military maintains. Military intervention throughout many parts of the world today is big business…unless you figure that the Pentagon makes war with sticks and stones, and soldiers fight for free.

 

I have long struggled with this topic, whether to write about it or not; for several reasons, but readers can rest assured that I am not pointing a finger at the soldiers that are serving in the military.  I do not blame them for the seeming endless military insurgencies that the United States carries out in a vast portion of the world today.

 

My old man used to say “what the world needs is wars to thin the herd,” and sadly I guess that he might have been right. Between 1901 and 2015 more than a 10^th of a billion have succumbed to the grim reapers military sword. Almost without exception every country on the face of the planet has been guilty of some sort of organized military skirmish.

 

In the sanctity of my basement man cave I regularly watch American Hero’s Channel, the History Channel and the Military Channel, and I basically begin a slow burn by the first commercial, and by the last commercial and past anger, I’m right into being flabbergasted. The stupidity that our fellow human beings have wrought on their fellow man is simply unbelievable.

 

Usually there are two or three veteran commercials that advertise helping a returning warrior, or how veterans can get a loan to purchase a house…and it’s almost guaranteed by some retired military mucky-muck. These ads usually put me over the top, and I turn my television to Tru-TV to catch up on a bit of some sanity.

 

WHAT DOES WAR TEACH US

I used to visit an old timer when I was a kid, Walt was his name, and he wasn’t my mentor or my teacher, he had a knack of telling really interesting stories, and I just loved to listen to him. Walt had been in World War I, and wasn’t a hero, a sergeant, or a leader, nope not Walt, like he’d say, “I was a follower.”

 

One story he told me was that he and four other soldiers were ordered by a lieutenant to go up a hill and see what was on the other side. Walt looks at his buddies, looks back at the lieutenant and says, “if you’re so interested in knowing what’s on the other side of that hill…you go.”  Obviously nothing happened, because Walt came home in one piece, and also with a handful of medals that he showed me.

 

The thing that Walt took away from his time in the European arena of the war was that war solved absolutely nothing, not when one considers the cost in human lives. I don’t recall him ever talking about the financial cost, or that war industry was profiteering from the calamity and carnage that the war was.

 

What has stuck with me all of these years from old Walt was the fact politicians make war, and then the populations fight the wars. Another thing that he told me was “once a war is over…never make war again.” Some of this stuff I’m paraphrasing, after all its 55 to 60 years since I had the privilege to sit and listen to the old stone cutter.

 

The average guy on the street doesn’t think about making war…trust me, I know, I study these things. The guy on the street is worried about his house payment, car payment, and the fact that he forgot the list that his wife wrote and left on the kitchen counter. With little exception citizens walking on America’s streets figure that living day to day is a full time job, and they don’t know the issues of…whatever, they don’t want to be bothered.

 

I also know that with little exception Americans detest military confrontation, not so much for what harm it’ll do, but because they don’t want to be bothered. Self-absorbed, you betcha, blissfully ignorant to the issues of the day, absolutely, patriotic, wildly, just about the same as anybody who doesn’t really know the issues, and doesn’t have a qualified answer.

 

Down through the annals of world history men have fought men for a variety of reasons, usually with little or no justification. Also the casualty list of worlds wars…of all times numbers in the millions, and yet man continues to fight man…are we really that dumb a species?

 

TO MY POINT

Vary simple, war is to be avoided at all costs, without conscription (a draft) there is a percentage of people in the United States who are of the mind-set necessary to serve in a military atmosphere. Their comfortable doing the bidding of their superiors…and the president, and Congress, depending on who occupies the White House, the president may simply circumvent Congress.

 

The 2015 fiscal defense budget is $496.1 billion and includes all sorts of listed expenditures, and can be read in its entirety online. The proposed 2016 defense budget will increase by $38.2 billion dollars to $534.3 billion. According to the printed information the Management of the Military Health System will be $47.8 billion, with some 9.2 million military personal, their family members and retirees.

 

Of course this Management of the Military Health System will be contingent on how many military operations that the United States might be involved in. Another serious military confrontation will drastically alter the $47.8 billion price-tag on what returning wounded soldiers need for medical care.

 

There is Tricare which was formerly known as the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS). Tricare is simply an insurance company that specializes in civilian health care for military dependents, military retirees and their dependents. 

 

Initially Tricare, which came into existence in 1997, was managed by Tricare Management Activity (TMC), under the authority of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs). In 2013 TMA disestablished and Tricare responsibility was transferred to the Defense Health Agency.

 

Confused yet…let’s try the Military Health System with Doctor Jonathan Woodson as agency boss, and the Executive Director, the Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. I guess between these two people, and some department heads, the collectively oversee 137,000 employees and administer a $50 billion dollar budget that is not included within the Department of Defense (DOD) budget.

 

Did you ever wonder how many military bases were located in the continental United States…well I did, and the number is 117 in 49 states around the nation. In addition there are 151 military installations that have been closed for one reason or another. The active bases serve as billeting for soldiers, training centers, and medical clinics for medical treatment.

 

There are, at the present time 142 military hospitals that are scattered around the country that are in every state except Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, and the Virgin Islands.

 

The costs to operate, maintain and keep secure these installations can’t be found on the DOD 2015 budget, or the proposed 2016 budget. Possibly I’m missing something, I’m only human, and as such am prone to making a mistake here and there. But in the light of day, in 100% transparency, these facilities and related maintenance costs have to run into the billions.

 

IN CLOSING

I have guarded respect for the country’s military personal, I use the word guarded because frankly I think some of our service men and women are psychopathic, and needed care way before they enter the military.

 

Possibly I’m way off base, but I think that we need to go back to the draft, believe you me, 50% of our military skirmishes would cease, and the other 50% would be diligently debated out from behind closed doors, and those smoke filled rooms that meet late at night.

 

The country’s military members should have every ounce of care that they need or desire, their dependents need access to the same care and transportation to and from any health appointments should be provided whenever necessary. All travel expenses incurred of any kind should be covered, and child care also provided at no cost.

 

There should be no need for Wounded Warriors or any of the dozens of other help organizations that advertise for civilians to individually aid returning veterans. To my way of thinking that financial burden should be shouldered by the taxpayers of the United States. Some of our elected officials and the vast majority of the military industrial complex throughout the world initiated the war, or military skirmish…and for electing these fools to office, and than sitting back while they wage wars throughout the world, for that transgression, we should all pay in spades.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

SHOOT ‘EM UP IN AMERICA

SHOOT ‘EM UP IN AMERICA

FRAZER CHRONICLE

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

I think that I am weird, I think about all of the carnage in the world, and I look for ways to stem the tide, and make things better for everybody. And without exception, when I get into one of these moods, I end up with more queries then answers. The reason… I still have faith in humanity, even though I’m usually disappointed with the final outcome. People it seems tend to think short term, and many of the world’s problems need long term answers.

 

My latest soap-box issue is gunshot deaths in the United States, and how completely asinine the problem is here in the United States. Baltimore, Maryland is number 40 in the world with regards to gunshot deaths with an average of 33.92 deaths per 100,000 citizens. New Orleans is number 28 as 39.61 people out of a 100,000 die by gun. Detroit comes in at number 22 with 44.87 deaths per 100,000, followed by St. Louis, Missouri with an astounding 49.93 deaths in 100,000 citizens.

 

South American countries dominate cities with the most gunshot deaths, and without exception crime, low household income and the rate of people living below a countries published poverty line are huge contributing factors. Many of the cities and countries on the list that I used for this blog were in a civil disorder…but I can tell you this, Baltimore, Maryland, New Orleans, Louisiana, Detroit, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri are “not” in any sort of civil disobedience, yet each made the list of the top deadliest cities in the world.

 

So what’s the problem here in the United States, or as some call “Camelot,” maybe it’s the water. I read an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about homicides in the first six months, and how they had doubled from last year’s count…going from 37 in 2014 to 74.

 

Lost in all of the bloodshed is the impact that a shooting death has on the decedent’s family, the void most probably, is almost unbearable. Not ever having been around the gunshot death of a family member, I have no clue, as does the average person on the street.

 

SEVERAL ISSUES INVOLVED HERE

The political community comes out of the woodwork in full force, as does the authority figures, each wanting answers, and offering solutions to the human carnage. Almost without exception their words have a hollow ring to them, and the problem solving suggestions are little more than window dressing.

 

There is talk about the families of the victims, of how a community is being robbed of the possible potential of a gunshot death. How the level of violence is “totally unacceptable,” how many political and city leaders are angered by the deaths.

 

What these authority figures initiate is little more than feel-good initiatives, with absolutely little chance of doing anything about the core problems. The overall problems can be directly traced to color, employment, education, and neighborhood of a victim’s residence.

 

Let’s face the hard cold facts of a victim’s race, education, and station in life…come on now, most victims are black…and most of the shooters are black, at least here in the United States. What is so hard for people of political clout, or position of authority have with admitting the obvious?

 

I’M A WHITE GUY AND IT STILL EMBARRASSES ME

I don’t have a brother, so I don’t understand how black people figure that some black guy on the street is their brother, even when they are only related by color. But let me jog a person’s thinking a bit, if I considered all white men my brother, if the average shooting in Baltimore or Detroit was committed by a white guy, it would embarrass me to know that my brother was shooting another white brother.

 

I suppose that some will view the above paragraph as the rants of a racist…and I don’t care, my point is simple, if more brothers found that blacks shooting blacks was not only embarrassing, but completely unacceptable, maybe then things would start a slow change.

 

To allow the numbers of people that are being shot to death to continue is what I call “enabling and it’s got to stop. Nobody can depend on a community’s political leaders, or civic leaders, or the authority figures.

 

Like always…meaningful change has to come from local citizen effort, it’s always been that way and probably always will be…and for good reason. When there is civil unrest, and people finally come to a decision that something is completely unacceptable…that thing is eradicated, it’s how a society works, at least in the United States.

 

It is time for the average citizen to get involved before some loon-owl orders military response to the stupidity and carnage that is going on in the streets and neighborhoods of America. Education, employment opportunities, and a resurrection of “my brothers keeping” is now in order before its too late for all of us.

Have a nice day!

 

WHAT’S THE BIG HUB BUB ABOUT THE CONFEDERATE FLAG

WHAT’S THE BIG HUB BUB ABOUT THE CONFEDERATE FLAG

FRAZER CHRONICLE

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

President Obama used the “N” word, Confederate flag flies on South Carolina Statehouse grounds, skin-heads, supremacists groups advocate people of color (especially blacks) return to wherever they came from, and many in the United States are upset by racially motivated killings, and harassment by authority figures (cops) against people of color (mostly blacks.)

 

And the United States is the greatest country that the world has ever seen…hum, maybe we’d better stop here for a moment and evaluate that belief. I am patriotic, red-white and blue all the way baby, I love my country, however I am perceptive enough to understand that the country is made up of many different people, with different ethnic backgrounds, values, and traditions. It’s one of the things, this diversity, that makes the United States so unique and neat to live in.

 

We are supposed to have freedom of speech, be able to pursue health, happiness, and be able to make enough money to live comfortably on. Oh I know, the last part of the previous sentence, “making enough money to live comfortably on” isn’t written down in any preamble, or the US Constitution, but I think that’s what many people believe, want to see and experience.

 

Right now the country is all “het up” about that stupid, sick individual who shot all of those people in that South Carolina church. Sadly that punk’s actions were simply the tip of the iceberg, and there’ll be more to come.

 

I make my home in Green Bay, Wisconsin, home of the Green Bay Packers, and about 103,000 people. The percentage of blacks, Hispanics, Orientals and Native Americans is probably around 15%, not considered enough to make the overall population of the city diverse.

 

You can go into almost any tavern, any day of the week and listen to the conversation that’s going on between patrons and catch the racial slurs, especially on a Packers game day. It is not uncommon for people to use the “N” word…nigger…throughout the game, and in fact get worse as more alcohol is consumed and the game nears the finish.

 

Racial tension here in little ole Green Bay is not heightened depending on a situation, or whatever event is going on. As one guy I know has said to me, “our niggers know how to act,” what a sad, sad commentary.

 

There is an element here in the United States that figures that the black man-women needs to be cared for, like the old attitude of paternalism. Blacks are stupid, by and large, and therefore need to be cared for. The attitude sickens me, and is part of the reason that hate groups seem to thrive in certain parts of the United States.

 

THERE ARE THREE THINGS THAT NEED TO HAPPEN

Number one, US citizens need to come to grips with the fact that the United States is a racist society. In the workplace, in neighborhoods, at the super-market, and on our streets, with little exception black people are not safe.

 

Whether its blacks shooting blacks, or whites shooting blacks, or mostly white cops shooting blacks…black people might need to consider themselves an endangered species. I don’t know how many black people are shot every year, but I know that it’s more than any other race.

 

And those blacks that are shot in neighborhoods, on street corners, on their porches, or while they are watching television in their homes knows no identity. Old, young, man, women, and sadly children, these killings are at an epidemic pace, if they were white people, the US Government would have stepped in long decades ago.

 

Number two, no matter the statute or law, no matter the issue or event, racism needs to be dealt with swiftly and aggressively. Old laws that favor the “Jim Crow” thinking need to be jettisoned from society.

 

And finally number three, an extensive background check for every potential gun purchaser needs to be in place as quickly as possible. The mandate should come from the Federal Government, should be all inclusive, and enacted within 90 days.

 

There should be a moratorium throughout the country until this background check becomes the law of the land. In addition every single gun shop would come under heavy scrutiny, and those that do not meet government standards will be shuttered…forever.

 

The United States has a problem, and when a country, any country, has a problem…every single citizen has the problem. It’ll take work and due-diligence by government, local, state and federal, gun owners, and those of us who do not own a weapon. It’s time for the human carnage to stop!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

    

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT A PERSON IN UNIFORM

FRAZER CHRONICLE

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

It’s true, I know for a fact that women seem to be attracted to a man in uniform, I can remember that…and it was neat. Of course I’m talking about a military uniform, not a cop, or a janitor, or garbage collector, but a sailor, or soldier. I don’t know how it is for women in uniform; I can only speak for me…”women in uniform never did a single thing for me.”

 

And now we come to a new troop deployment to Iraq, a war that ended on December 31 2011, hooray, and hooray. Personally I never figured that Iraq was over; there was simply way to many loose ends. And now the president is going to order more troops back into the country and retired and serving US mucky mucks are heralding the president’s requests.

 

The US waged war in Iraq for parts of at least nine years with varying degrees of success as well as failures…and through it all not a single sole learned a damned thing. Am I the only one speaking truth and reason…I sure hope not.

 

The United States does not belong in Iraq, the US was responsible for getting rid of Saddam Hussein, the United States is responsible for leaving the country in turmoil, and the US is responsible well over 100,000 civilian casualties…minimum. And now we’re going right back in there with 500 military troops to train Iraqi military and police…”like that’s going to work like it did during the Bush administration”.

 

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that Iraqi Security Forces “showed no will to fight,” at least in Ramadi from falling to ISIL. If that is true, which I’m sure it is, what in the world is the Obama Administration sending more American troops to train Iraqi’s. If they won’t fight…any matter the reason, no amount of training or weapons is going to change that kind of attitude.

 

HERE WE GO AGAIN

While Americans suffer here in the greatest country ever devised in the history of man, “it’s what many conservative fools think and say,” our president is strongly thinking about adding military bases in Iraq! Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the United States military dismantle a whole bunch of military facilities at a cost of millions to taxpayers?

 

Call me silly, but I got to ask the question, “who exactly is running the loony bin,” I want to get this issue crystal clear in my feeble 71 year old mind, “we build um, we use um, and then we tear them down…and then we re-erect them?” Sounds like somebody with a whole lot of time on his/her hands is running the country; so much for financial conciseness, and the best interest of us taxpayers.

 

I guess that price tag for close to $2 trillion dollars for the war on terror hasn’t made a dent in those hard headed authority figures that are running this country. It’s why, for me, it’s getting harder and harder to vote for a president to operate our country. I’m not endorsing isolationism…yet, but I guess I’ve got to ask the question of “how much longer are we going to allow our elected officials to run rampant with our tax dollars.”

 

We have a national debt that is out of control, we have people who are uninsured, “even with the Affordable Care Act,” and we have people living out of card-board boxes under bridges, and we have people living from hand to mouth…no money, and a majority of US citizens continue to turn a blind eye towards our massive military force and buildup.

 

STEPPING ON TOES

I’m going to lose some readers, and possibly even some friends, but this needs to be said…the United States is an aggressive military state who fancies itself as the world’s policeman. This feeling surfaced during WWI and was further developed on the run-up to World War II, and has been refined during the 1950’s through the 1990’s.

 

September 11, 2001 was a wake-up call for this country’s leaders and how woeful the country’s intelligence was. The wars that have raged since that date have taken hundreds of thousands of lives. The blood-bath has marked this period in human history, given the fact that many countries and citizens have supposed to have moved on from the butchery and carnage that man does to man, has been extraordinary.

 

With the amount of secret situations that are going on right here in the United States, with the huge amounts of money that is being misappropriated, and the people who are foolhardily signing up to protect America’s freedom and way of life to me is ridiculous. Talk about your misguided individuals…they’ve swallowed the bait “hook, line, and sinker.”

 

That bait; that these people are protecting US citizens from terrorists, or as they like to phrase it…”from bad people” is complete crap. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror, the United States is not lily white, there are ulterior motives as to why the US has meddled so much in the Middle East…one word sums it up…petroleum.

 

The people that have the most to gain from any military action in the area are those petroleum related industries and the military industrial complex. I understand that using the phrase “military industrial complex” all sorts of visions of the late 1950’s and 1960’s, but the phrase is still spot on in explaining who is pushing.

 

THERE IS A REASON UNIFORMS SHOULDN’T RUN A COUNTRY

The United States needs a military presence…in the United States, like the National Guard, however unlike the National Guard; the country needs full time military forces to deal with all sorts of domestic issues, forest fires, floods, weather events, and actually helping the police departments around the country.

 

There is a reason why the United States has been run by a civilian individual, because a military type person mostly knows just one way, confrontation. With little exception, military individuals are used to getting their way which can be very bad for a country.

 

I am not say in any way, shape, or form that the United States is the best country in the world, or that it has the best pattern for building a governing body. I am saying however that the country does give a citizen a chance to grab at the ring of individualism. How important that chance is, is pretty much beyond me.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

 

WAR REPARATION

WAR REPARATION

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

I never gave much thought to “war reparation”, whether it was the United States paying for a country’s rebuilding efforts at the end of a military intrusion by the United States and her allies. I would suppose that dumping scads of taxpayer funds into countries that the U.S. preemptively engaged in military action might be justified. However in the aftermath of the 2^nd World War when the United States forked over $17 billion which would be about $120 billion in its worth today, to rebuild Europe, that has always kind of been a thorn in my bonnet.

 

I never fully understood that mentality of rebuilding what had been torn down, or bombed to smithereens. I was kind of under the naïve thinking process that when a country invades, and acquires property, natural elements and people, that once the dust of war cleared the offenders (if they’d been defeated) would have to pony up the dough. Having to rebuild their land as well as those that they invaded was kind of like punishment for causing the war, or so I feel.

 

Oh, I understand that after Germany was defeated in World War II, they did not have the funds necessary for the extensive rebuilding efforts. Still the country should still be held responsible for the cost of rebuilding what they ripped apart. People must have thought that the money that the United States Government used in reconstructing Europe grew on trees.

 

I understand that decades after the European Recovery Program (ERP) or the Marshall Plan ran its four year course of spending that $17 billion dollars it is almost silly to question the veracity of what went down more than 68 years ago, but I’d really like for somebody to justify spending taxpayer dollars to help boost the European economy, to rebuild war devastated regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, make Europe prosperous, and prevent the spread of communism. However I have a strong feeling that stopping the spread of communism was of paramount importance to the program.  

 

Does anybody believe here in the 21^st century that that $17 billion dollars all went to Europe for a rebuilding and humanitarian effort…..I didn’t think so. The debacle that Iraq and Afghanistan have been with regards to the suit-cases and cardboard boxes full of American taxpayer dollars disappearing, I’m sure happened after 1945 in Europe.

 

You see, “we get the old cattle prod when we come into this life and when we leave”. What our slick authority figures do is to cajole the American taxpayers into a war which costs trillions, with mostly our young people possibly being shot to death…..and when hostilities are at an end, these same war hawk authority figures suddenly turn humanitarian and dish out American taxpayer money to rebuild what they’ve crushed. It’s really a sweet situation for the current authority figures, and the next general of these people.

 

HOWEVER IT’S NOT ONLY EUROPE THAT NEEDS REBUILDING BY U.S. TAXPAYERS

We don’t usually equate war reparations payouts here in the United States, no, it’s usually some little Iraq, or Afghani village that we’ve never heard of and much less can say. However that has all changed, and we have us to thank  for what seems to be happening with greater frequency here in the U.S.

 

Some U.S. cities seem to be addressing police brutality the same way that our high ranking governmental authority figures do with rebuilding our war torn military escapades around the world…..using tax dollars to repay victims who have been wronged with regards to how their lives were torn apart.

 

I read several articles about these reparations, and I sat bolt upright during my morning coffee and bananas and knew exactly what I’d have to blog about today. Seems like American citizens are a little like all of those innocent German’s during World War II that had absolutely no idea about Hitler’s genocide of the Jewish people.

 

Those’s right, right here in the United States helpless imprisoned people, mostly black, are subjected to all sorts of physical degradation. Come on, we know that this happens all of the time, and that the vast majority of these people (like I mentioned) are black.

 

Let’s get this straight, in war the United States and her allies invade a country because there is a feeling that the country invaded MIGHT be planning some sort of attack against the U.S. or one of her allies…..in the future. So our authority figures figure it’s better to strike first and ask questions later…..and then, when the answers to the questions don’t quite fit the reason for the sorties that U.S. taxpayers have just paid for…..our authority figures decide that we have to partake in the rebuilding process because they made an oops. And where does that money come from…..well ladies and gentlemen, get to diggin once again, cause we just got another tax bill.

 

Sadly the exact same thing is happening right here in the United States, this time in the form of the country’s policing agencies. Yup those big bellied, muscle-bound, red-necked peace officers are overstepping their bounds again…..actually still! You didn’t really think that today’s law-enforcement agencies invented brutal and rough treatment to the people that they arrest…..did you?

 

Chi-town will be paying a cool $5.5 million to victims that have had the crap kicked out of them by Chicago’s finest for decades. Milwaukee will be paying almost half a million dollars for illegal strip searches. Los Angeles has millions of dollars pending in court battles with dozens of men and women who have been rousted by LA cops.

 

And those victims who have lost their lives as the result of police brutality numbers in the thousands, and the pending lawsuit settlements are astronomical…..try in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

I have always had a problem with public employees saying that they “serve the public”, it has just never rang true for me. Cops, firefighters, street sweepers, sanitation department people, dog catchers usually feel that they’ve gotten themselves a pretty good gig. Benefits are great, the pay is raised in increments and retirement is dynamite.

 

Oh sure cops and firefighters have a tough, and sometimes dangerous job, but it still usually beats working for a living. I speak from experience here also, my wife was one of those public servants and retired from her job a couple of years ago with some pretty impressive benefits…..I’m not complaining.

 

BUT NOW WE GET TO THE REAL NITTY-GRITTY

We still have time, not much, but time none-the-less, there are some good and decent cops out there, and I’m sure that they are like me and you, abhorred to what they see on their jobs every day. For them to stand up and point fingers has always been a ridiculous statement for the hierarchy of police authority figures to say.

 

You’ve heard of the blue wall, well it goes deeper than any wall of silence that ordinary people have ever encountered. You see cops are a different breed of kitty-cat, they covet their authority, and they seem to have an extra load of testosterone surging through their bodies. A goodly number of cops are control freaks, who must be in charge…..and usually do not make mistakes.

 

There are several things that the common citizens (us) need to do to retake our streets, number one is to realize that all black people, or people of color, are bad people. Actually they’re just about like white people…..(white, just another color) and we need to come to grips with that fact.

 

Police forces are bankrolled by…..guess who, us taxpayers, so we can actually dictate to them what we want done, and how it needs to be accomplished. Non-violence needs to be the order of the day.

 

And finally, possibly the hardest part of this equation is the fact that we need to govern ourselves, and the way we think, say and do. Involvement is paramount to success here, instead of selfies, be taking pictures of cops doing what they perceive as their jobs. What we have, in the final analyses is a responsibility to ourselves, and our kids. We need to be checking our so called authority figures to ensure that they are doing the jobs that we hired them to do.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

IT’S OUR OWN FAULT

IT’S OUR OWN FAULT

(FRAZER CHRONICLE)

(All the News That Nobody Else Will Print)

There seems to be an outbreak of brutality between U.S. citizens and law enforcement over the past several years, and I find it disturbing. I’m not in a street gang, I don’t sell narcotics on street corners, and I don’t have a stable of ladies of the evening. I try and operate my life as a law-abiding citizen…..however, last November (2014) there was a loud knock at my front door on a Sunday night right around 10:00 P.M. It was the cops, and they wanted to know if I had been beating my wife.

 

First off, I was interrupted from my Tru-TV show, and secondly I only beat my wife on Wednesday evenings between 7:30 and 8:00 P.M. so they were early! There’s a little deal that’s called probable cause that cops use all of the time, I know, I watch Law and Order, what those two words, (probable cause) means that John Law can enter your abode whenever they want, all they got to say is probable cause.

 

I was intimidated, scared, bewitched, bothered and bewildered, “actually just intimidated and scared” and one of the cops (there was two plus a trainee) wanted to search my house. Now I ask you, “what would you, think, say and do in such a situation” ….comply…..it’s what I did until my daughter stepped in and kind of put a halt to the silliness. At this point I kind of regained my composure and told the trio of authority figures to leave…..there’d been enough scare tactics for one Sunday evening.

 

There parting shot, “dispatch must have given us a wrong address which I hardily agreed with, anyways I always get sweaty whenever I’m beating my wife…..and on this Sunday night my brow was completely dry.

 

The incident left me with several different emotions, and you can’t know what I mean until you experience firsthand the vulnerable feeling that you have when blue uniformed men demand that you open your door for inspection with pistols hanging from their hips. It doesn’t matter the day, or the hour, the law simply suspects somebody of something.

 

Okay, I’m getting to be an old fool, as opposed to at one time being a young fool, and even though I seldom have had to deal with the law, I have an abiding fear of the law. The only respect that I have for these authority figures is that they can hurt me, they can arrest me, smash down my door and cart me off to jail for…..whatever, or worse…. shoot me.

 

I have to be totally honest, I have been happy to see the law only one time in my life, and I’ve been around a bit. I ran all over the Midwest for thirty years chasing a baseball (playing or involved with the game) and I got to tell you I wasn’t always sober when I drove. I also drove a semi-tractor trailer in 41 different states, and never once was glad to see the law.

 

I have noticed during the past decade or so that regular law enforcement has been stockpiling all sorts of military type equipment that they use once in a while for special incidents, you know, like crowd control, or the disbursement of the same. Pepper spray Tasers, billy-clubs and all sorts of choke-holds that can turn lethal in a heart-beat, or lack thereof. Police forces in the world of 2015 are armed to the teeth, and baby they’re ready, willing and able to use what they got.

 

TO PROTECT AND TO SERVE

I’ve always somehow had a problem with that slogan stenciled across police squad car doors, I personally have never felt the need for police protection, and I sure as hell don’t need a cop to get my cat out of the tree. No-sir-ee, I can protect myself just fine thank you, and you sure as hell don’t need to worry about cops serving me, I’m capable of taking my own sustenance.

 

There has been a dramatic shift in what cops are expected to do, and it hasn’t all been because they simply assumed more responsibility. It seems like a kind of gray area with regards to exactly what police departments across the fruited plains of America are really supposed to do.

 

I believe that fifty or so years ago, the average cop in any average community was supposed to ensure that there was peace, and some stability within a community. Today it seems as if the major thrust of police officers is enforce laws, make arrests and issue citations for an ever broadening litany of rules and regulations, some it seems enacted to generate an income for budgeting situations.

 

The techniques in use by police departments has made a gradual change over the years, there is a seeming heightened focus on total control in every situation. As if the control factor wasn’t enough, many in law enforcement seem to have a trigger finger when confronting a civilian no matter the reason for the stop.

 

I haven’t felt this, but there seems to be a kind of epidemic of police harassment and violence, which is a nationwide issue. I read about it, and see it in newscasts every day of the week.

 

Another issue that has spread across the nation like a wildfire is a seeming unbridled unaccountability for abuse of power, and police brutality has been an issue for several decades now. Cops do not have the right to manhandle, punch, kick, or whack with those batons that they carry.

 

I DON’T HAVE THE TIME…..BUT IF I DID

There is no data base that tracks police killing civilians, there is no data base that tracks police brutality, or abuse of authority, but if I had the time and the where-with-all, I’d bet that the numbers would be significant, scary, and sobering.

 

Here’s the problem in a neat little nut shell, there can’t be a cop-land (where mostly cops live), police forces aren’t families, and they aren’t brothers. Like the rest of us, they are little more than working stiffs, grubbing for a paycheck. When we, as citizens kowtow to the silly notions that fire and safety departments are more than jobs, when they are held up, above the rest, and some kind of hero’s we are asking for trouble, the kind of trouble that we now find ourselves in.

 

And please don’t waste my time with that tired line about appreciating “their service,” because quite frankly…..I don’t. Some of these guys are way past dangerous, they are down-right barbaric, and need to be locked away with some of the people that they arrest.

 

I also take exception to the “the bad cops are just isolated, and the vast number of police officers are fine, upstanding public servants”. If that was the case, why would they refer to themselves as family, and brothers…..and the blue wall of silence!

 

There is an old saying that was uttered by somebody a hell-of-a-lot smarter then I, “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Truer words were never spoken, especially when talking about the shape of law enforcement in the United States today.

 

Race DOES play a role in how police act and react to situations, areas of their communities, and you’d better believe that the residents of these areas are aware of the race card being played over and over. Race is a big reason that there really isn’t a nationwide data base of police and civilian action, and reaction.

 

A BLACK A DAY IN THE EASIEST WAY

It is estimated that as many as 400 black men are shot to death here in the United States every year that means that at least one black man is shot every 24 hours, an appalling figure if true. There’s all sorts of stories about blacks getting murdered by cops across the country, and make no mistake, it is murder.

 

The numbers aren’t much different for Latinos with the average being shot to death between 350 and 400 males. The vast majority of police who shot either blacks or Latinos are white, which shouldn’t be surprising because the about 75% of all police forces in the country are white.

 

Believe it or not, there is also a status type symbol with regards to the killing of a black young person. I suppose you might relate shooting a black man to death the same as earning you’re bones. Of course for the vast majority of Americans this type of an attitude is completely foreign, and is unbelievable to understand.

 

With the attitude and the atmosphere on the streets of America today, as far as I can see, there is little reason for a black or Latino to confront cops in any sort of situation because that minority has an almost 50% chance of getting shot, or otherwise manhandled. White people, the basic framers of government today understand little about what a black person goes through during his life, yet it’s still the white man who sets standards, regulations rules, and laws that are supposed to aid minorities in their struggles with racism today.

 

CLOSING SHOTS

A 34 year old biomedical technician, Ricardo Arceo (a Latino), got out of his sisters van after a traffic stop, raised his hands over his head and begin walking towards the cop who pulled his revolver and shot Arceo to death…..on a Los Angeles street.

 

Undercover drug officers in Orlando, Florida shot to death unarmed Izzy Colon after a physical altercation. Colon may have been stupid to involve himself in a physical struggle, but undercover agents, guns, money and drugs make for a witches brew.

 

In Kent, Ohio a 29 year old police officer, Sarah Berkey, is on paid leave after the off duty officer shot and killed a 29 year old man.

 

Sidney, Nebraska police shot and killed Dana Hiavinka after cops responded to a domestic disturbance. The two officers saw a women running away from her residence, and when they entered the house they were confronted by the knife wielding Hiavinka who they shot to death. A graphic illustration of why one should never bring a knife to a gun fight.

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a police car dash cam shows Officer Lisa Mearkle shooting David Kassick fatally in the back for a traffic stop.  It parallels the South Carolina shooting death of black motorist Walter Scott for a broken tail-light.

 

Of course there was the fatal shooting of black man, Eric Harris by a 73 year old white former real estate broker Robert Bates when Bates mistook his pistol for a Taser. It is true that Harris was a suspect in a weapons sting operations, and it’s also true that he ran from officers…..but getting shot by a ride-along 73 year old former real estate agent…..with an unauthorized gun to boot…..not cool.

 

And finally there’s the case of Freddie Gray, in Baltimore, Maryland who died in police custody from a snapped spine injury. Police are at a loss to figure out how Gray “picked up his injuries”, here’s a clue, he was black and the cops were white.

 

I remember my brother-in-law getting busted for driving while under the influence of alcohol in Pontiac, Michigan 20 or so years ago. After he was released and came home, his face looked like somebody had danced on it…..and he’s white.

 

Yup police are out of control, and we’ll probably never get control back again, at least in my lifetime. It’ll be up to my kid’s kid’s to deal with the problem, all I can say is “good luck.” For me, I plan on keeping my head low and my butt lower than my head!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!